


Exposed

by flipflop_diva



Series: What Eyes Can't See [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Community: purimgifts, F/F, Orders, Pre-Relationship, Sexual Fantasy, Undercover, Undercover Missions, boss/employee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:08:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23062969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: Pepper finds out the truth about who Natalie Rushman really is. It goes differently than Natasha expects.Part 1 of 3.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Natasha Romanov
Series: What Eyes Can't See [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1658983
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34
Collections: Purimgifts 2020





	Exposed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [semperfiona](https://archiveofourown.org/users/semperfiona/gifts).



Pepper’s nails dug into the bare flesh of her wrist, but Natasha didn’t flinch nor wince nor did she yank her arm away, even if that was her first instinct. Instead she just raised her eyes, her face expressionless, to see the cold fury evident across Pepper’s.

“I want to know who you are,” Pepper said, and her voice was cold, demanding, hard.

Natasha tried to play wide-eyed innocent.

“What?” she stammered, in a voice soft and mellow, much unlike how she really felt.

Pepper’s expression seemed to harden even more. “Don’t play me,” she said. “Who are you?”

Natasha blinked, slowly and with a confused expression across her face. “Natalie Rushman,” she said, still in that quiet voice.

Pepper’s grip around her wrist seemed to tighten, her nails digging in more. There were going to be marks when she finally let go.

“Try again,” Pepper practically hissed.

Natasha just looked at her in complete confusion.

Pepper yanked on her arm, so unexpectedly that Natasha found herself tripping as she stumbled behind Pepper over to her large desk in the corner office of Stark Industries. With her free hand, Pepper picked something up and shoved it at Natasha.

She glanced down. Photos. Of her and Nick Fury and Tony Stark at a diner, Natasha very clearly wearing her SHIELD uniform.

“Where did you get those?” she asked, keeping her voice calm.

“SHIELD isn’t the only one with fancy tech,” Pepper said. “Now tell me who you are.”

Natasha lifted her head, raising her chin just slightly into the air. She still didn’t pull her arm away from Pepper’s grip.

“Natasha Romanoff,” she said.

“You’re a SHIELD agent.” 

It wasn’t a question, but Natasha answered anyway. “Yes.”

“And you’re …?”

“It’s classified.”

“Try me.”

“I can’t.”

“But you can’t do your job if I fire you, can you?”

Natasha didn’t answer for a moment. She knew SHIELD would never let that happen, and Pepper seemed to be a reasonable woman.

“Or if I expose you to everyone.”

“What?” Natasha stared at Pepper, for a moment caught off guard by what had just been proposed.

A second later Pepper released her wrist, crossing her own arms across her chest. She stared at Natasha and Natasha met her eyes, but as they looked at each other, the hardness in Pepper’s expression seemed to soften.

“I wouldn’t do that,” she finally said. “I assume Tony knows who you are and he’s okay with you being here.”

Natasha nodded. She didn’t think Pepper needed to know that Tony wasn’t super hyped on the plan either.

“So that means I have to be okay with it.” Pepper took a deep breath. “But I only want you where I can see you. I don’t trust you.”

“That’s fair.”

“Is it? Or are you just saying that?”

“Would you believe me if I told you it’s the truth?”

“No,” Pepper said.

“Okay,” Natasha said. “Then think what you need to.”

Pepper didn’t answer. She merely kept her arms crossed and stared at Natasha, looking her up and down, from the black heels she was wearing to the top of her red curls. Natasha felt the urge to fidget — an urge she almost never had, but the way Pepper was looking at her, studying her, sizing her up … It was unnerving in a way Natasha couldn’t explain. And she hated being unnerved, being vulnerable, being not in control.

Finally, Pepper dropped her arms to her sides and walked back around her desk.

“You may go,” she told Natasha, like she had called her in for some sort of employee review.

Natasha found herself nodding. “Yes, ma’am,” she said, and then she turned to go. She had barely made it halfway across the spacious office when Pepper’s voice stopped her again.

“And Natalie,” she said, sounding more friendly than she had during the whole encounter, but Natasha could hear the firmness beneath the words, “if I catch you lying to me about anything at all, you will regret it.”

Natasha turned back to look at Pepper, but the other woman just waved a hand at her, dismissing her, and she found herself following orders, walking to the door and slipping outside, closing it behind her.

She slipped into a bathroom down the hall unnoticed, bolting the door behind her and leaning back against it.

What had just happened? She was the SHIELD agent. The spy. The assassin. She was the one in charge of the situation. So why did she feel like a little kid called before a disappointed principal?

And more importantly, why did she care?

She thought about Pepper’s expression, the hardness in her voice, and then she dropped her gaze down to her wrist, to the five perfect crescent-shaped marks adorning it. She let the fingers of her other hand drift over them gently and almost felt the sting of Pepper’s nails and the warmness of her hand wrapped around her.

Wait, what?

Natasha continued to stare down at her wrist, at the marks there, and thought again about Pepper. Thought about how commanding she was, how independent. How she could bark out orders and make Natasha want to follow them.

Leave my office. Enter my office. Get down on your knees. Take off your clothes. Spread your legs.

Natasha’s head banged back against the door, and she almost jumped.

No, no, no, no. What was happening? Pepper wasn’t her target. Pepper wasn’t anything. She couldn’t be having thoughts like this. She shouldn’t be having thoughts like this. Natasha didn’t ever have thoughts like this, so why now?

Natasha closed her eyes, took a deep breath and willed all thoughts of Pepper out of her mind. She was just thrown off from Pepper discovering the truth when she hadn’t expected her to. It was nothing she couldn’t handle.

She opened her eyes, stood straight, adjusted her skirt and opened the door of bathroom, stepping back out into the hall.

But as she walked back to her desk, she couldn’t help noticing, out of the corner of her eye, the marks Pepper had left in her skin.

She shuddered, and kept walking.


End file.
